Senior Computational Scientist

Posting Information

Posting Information

Department Lineberger Compr Cancer Center-426801 Career Area Research Professionals Posting Open Date 10/21/2026 Application Deadline 11/04/2026 Open Until Filled No Position Type Permanent Staff (EHRA NF) Working Title Senior Computational Scientist Appointment Type EHRA Non-Faculty Position Number 20079105 Vacancy ID NF0010130 Full Time/Part Time Full-Time Permanent FTE 1 Hours per week 40 Position Location North Carolina, US Hiring Range Dependent on education/experience Proposed Start Date 11/23/2026

Position Information

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Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit

Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians and others whom we serve. We accomplish this by providing leadership and excellence in the interrelated areas of patient care, education and research.

Patient care: We promote health and provide superb clinical care while maintaining our strong tradition of reaching underserved populations and reducing health disparities across North Carolina and beyond.

Education: We prepare tomorrow`s healthcare professionals and biomedical researchers from all backgrounds by facilitating learning within innovative and integrated curricula and team-oriented interprofessional education to ensure a highly skilled workforce.

Research: We develop and support a rich array of outstanding health sciences research programs, centers and resources. We provide infrastructure and opportunities for collaboration among disciplines throughout and beyond our university to support outstanding research. We foster programs in the areas of basic, translational, mechanistic and population research.

Position Summary

The Senior Computational Scientist, Research Software & Data Platforms, builds and runs the software that the Initiative for Generative Immunotherapy at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center uses to track, process, and share its research data. The position has three main areas of work: automating data handling around the Initiative's sequencing analyses, building an internal system for tracking samples and data, and developing a public web portal where researchers can browse and download the Initiative's data.

Data handling covers intake of new data from sequencing cores and collaborators, file and metadata checks, storage and transfer, hand-off of whole-genome (WGS), whole-exome (WES), bulk RNA-seq, and single-cell data to the analysis pipelines, and cataloging and release of pipeline outputs. The pipelines themselves are written and run by the Initiative's bioinformatics staff and are outside the scope of this position.

The public portal will let users search and filter datasets and sample metadata, view summary plots, and download data in standard formats, one file at a time or in bulk. The internal sample and data management system will link each biospecimen to its clinical annotations, sequencing runs, files, and analysis results, so that any sample can be traced from collection to public release.

The position works with bioinformaticians, laboratory staff, and physicians to define requirements, makes sure data sharing follows consent, privacy, and funder rules, and writes the technical sections of grant proposals and papers that describe the Initiative's data resources.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

Master's or Bachelor's and 0-2 years' experience; or will accept a combination of related education and experience in substitution.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• Experience building web applications with a modern front-end framework (e.g., React, Vue, or Svelte, with TypeScript), including interfaces for searching, filtering, and visualizing data.
• Experience automating data handling (ingestion, validation, transfer, cataloging, release) for large scientific or clinical datasets.
• Working knowledge of high-throughput sequencing data, including WGS, WES, bulk RNA-seq, and single-cell, and the associated file formats and standards (e.g., FASTQ, BAM/CRAM, VCF, h5ad/AnnData, GA4GH), enough to work directly with bioinformaticians on pipeline inputs and outputs.
• Facility with modern AI methods and software process automation.
• Attention to detail and ability to work simultaneously on multiple priorities.
• Analytical capabilities, including the ability to think critically and strategically and to propose and implement change.
• Excellent presentation, communication, management, and mentorship skills.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience

• PhD in Computer Science, Bioinformatics/Computational Biology, Data Science, or similar discipline.
• Proficiency in Python, and enough familiarity with workflow managers (e.g., Nextflow, Snakemake) to pass data to and collect results from pipelines run by bioinformatics staff.
• Experience building back-end services and APIs (e.g., FastAPI, Django, Node.js; REST or GraphQL) on relational databases such as PostgreSQL.
• Experience developing or administering sample tracking, LIMS, or research metadata management systems.
• Experience with data visualization libraries (e.g., D3, Plotly, Vega) and with building accessible user interfaces.
• Experience serving large files (e.g., object storage with signed URLs, Globus, Aspera).
• Experience with cloud platforms, containers, scheduled and event-driven jobs, and CI/CD.
• Familiarity with public genomic data portals and repositories (e.g., NCI Genomic Data Commons, cBioPortal, CELLxGENE, GEO, SRA, dbGaP) and FAIR data principles.

Special Physical/Mental Requirements Campus Security Authority Responsibilities

Not Applicable.

Special Instructions Quick Link https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/327305

Posting Contact Information

Department Contact Name and Title Vanessa Perry, Human Resources Consultant Department Contact Telephone or Email vanessa_perry@med.unc.edu Office of Human Resources Contact Information

If you experience any problems accessing the system or have questions about the application process, please contact the Office of Human Resources at (919) 843-2300 or send an email to employment@unc.edu

Please note: The Office of Human Resources will not be able to provide specific updates regarding position or application status.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

The University is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all to apply without regard to age, color, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Applicant Documents

Required Documents

• Curriculum Vitae / Resume
• Cover Letter
• List of References

Optional Documents

Supplemental Questions

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

• • Please select the response below that describes your level of education that best or most closely satisfies the education requirements for this position.

• Bachelor's degree in required discipline(s) listed or related field

• Bachelor's degree in any field/discipline

• Master's degree or Doctorate degree in required discipline(s) listed or related field

• Master's degree or Doctorate degree in any field/discipline

• None of the above

• • Describe your experience developing web applications using modern front-end frameworks such as React, Vue, or Svelte with TypeScript. What types of data search, filtering, or visualization features have you designed and implemented?

(Open Ended Question)

• • Tell us about a project where you automated the handling of large scientific or clinical datasets. What processes did you automate (e.g., data ingestion, validation, transfer, cataloging, or release), and what was the outcome?

(Open Ended Question)

• • Describe your experience working with high-throughput sequencing data, such as WGS, WES, bulk RNA-seq, or single-cell datasets. How have you used file formats and standards such as FASTQ, BAM/CRAM, VCF, h5ad/AnnData, or GA4GH in collaboration with bioinformaticians or research teams?

(Open Ended Question)